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X-Men Origins Pirate Draws a 1-Year Sentence
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com: "In 2009, a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine found its way on to Megaupload a month before it was due to appear in movie theaters. The so-called 'workprint' copy was unfinished — so unfinished in fact, anyone viewing this copy saw green screens and wires attached to actors used to help with the more acrobatic movements during action scenes. Hugh Jackman even commented on the leak, describing it as like getting a 'Ferrari without a paint job.' The person who decided to share the movie illegally was tracked down, however. He is a 49-year-old New Yorker by the name of Gilberto Sanchez, and he's just been prosecuted." The New York Times' 2010 interview with Sanchez is a good read, too.
Sooo, instead of imposing a fine, we'll let the taxpayer foot the bill for a year's incarceration. Brilliant.
I think the punishment here is perhaps disproportionate, but I agree with the sentiment. It's far better to go after the people who knowingly share things with widespread audiences than anyone else in the infringement set-up.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
So the question becomes... why does a guy that intentionally uploaded this for others, a month before the movie comes out (where I would expect the studio to make a huge chunk of its profit on the movie) only get a year in prison when someone who accidentally shares a few crappy songs gets a financial punishment that makes a year in prison look quite tame?
Except, of course, those convicted of sodomy charges. There's the Federal no-ass-pounding prison for that.
Jokes aside, it's interesting how among all the different types of intellectual property, only copyright is settled in criminal courts.
If only you had been there, he would be a free man today. In fact, the film probably was better without all that sterile, fake looking animation.
TFA says the jailed guy got the movie on DVD for $5 from some guy in a Chinese restaurant. So the movie was already in commercial, pirate distribution on DVD and the feds did nothing about that. Instead they went after the movie buff who uploaded the DVD for no commercial gain. This sounds more like the usual "war against the internet" than "going after the right person" as the articles propagandistically pretend.
"The person who decided to share the movie illegally was tracked down"
Well, not exactly... the person who first uploaded it was tracked down, not the person who first stole it, copy it, and give it to the Koreans to sell on the street.
Seems the person to first share it is still out there...
You do know that he can still be sued by the studios for copyright infringement, right? This was a criminal action. The studio can still take civil action against him if it so desires.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
it's interesting how among all the different types of intellectual property, only copyright is settled in criminal courts.
There are criminal offenses defined under trademark law, too.
And are policed by the FBI and ICE and Homeland Security ... pretty sweet deal, make the government responsible for policing your profits, and at their expense.
The police (and the government) now officially work for the corporations. It's amazing the laws you can buy.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Here's the obligatory proportions post. How many people have been arrested for the housing market crash thus far? How much monetary damage did those people actually do in comparison to this guy?... yeah.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I don't think it matters. The movie butchered so many comic book back stories that it was incredibly painful to watch even after "the paint was applied."
I wouldn't call it a Ferrari either. Maybe a Pinto without a paint job.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
I think the punishment here is perhaps disproportionate, but I agree with the sentiment.
It could of been worse. He could of been forced to watch the movie repeatedly through his 1 year sentence; thankfully the 8th amendment prevents that.
At least watching the workprint made it fun: "Claws Grow".
Hell yeah! I found the workprint to be far more entertaining than the finished film as well. I watched it at least 3 times and laughed my ass off every single time. Remember the plane crash? "EXPLOSION!!!" The part when Wolverine gets hit by the Big Rig was great, too.
I wish more studios would include workprints and stuff like that on their legitimate DVD/BD releases. The process of making a movie is often times far more fascinating to me than the movie itself.
Look, I don't really follow the Slashdot party line on this one; I think stealing from artists you respect is stupid, because they won't make you more stuff. And Sanchez was an idiot for uploading this thing from the illegal pirated copy he bought. But his punishment does seem disproportionate, and they still got the wrong guy.
This guy bought stolen goods, and made illegal copies of copyrighted materials. Somebody, somewhere, actually stole the proof from the studio. That is the real crime they should be punishing if they want to stop pre-release pirates. And I won't even bother to point out how effortlessly easy it would be to track copies and identify leaks in this technical audience, because I'm sure you can all come up with half-a-dozen schemes yourselves. If the studios can't be bothered to prevent the leaks or identify and punish the leakers in the first place, why should we care what happens to the leaked materials?
> Whether it's a "crappy" song or a pre-release of a highly-anticipated motion picture, the law says the punishment is the same.
No. Usually not. The law and judges actually have a wide degree of leeway. They have it because typically no two sets of facts are quite alike and they can be often quite different.
The judge could have suspended the sentence entirely.
The judge isn't just an automaton despite the fact that some people like to pretend that they are or should be.
The ability to adapt to different circumstances is actually a good thing.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
It's possibly worth noting that that version was actually more interesting than the final cut.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
There is one more lesson we have learned. The world is full of assholes who seem to agree with this punishment!
So you do think that 1 year in federal prison after being hunted by FBI is an appropriate punishment for buying a bootleg movie and uploading it? Really? If he at least stole the copy during his employment - there would be a breach of trust/contract violation (why, yes, I read TFA). But he bought and uploaded a bootleg movie.
Only in a cruel asshole world is 1 year in prison plus another year of limited computer access an appropriate punishment for uploading/sharing a movie he didn't even steal. We can argue about some fines (he's not right or anything), but the punishment is very clearly out of proportion. And those cheering it on are part of the problem!
The movie butchered so many comic book back stories that it was incredibly painful to watch even after "the paint was applied."
Tell me about it. Not only this guy, but every distributor of that crap should be jailed for unleashing such an atrocity. I saw it on TV and still felt like demanding my money back.
And they all moved away from him over on the Group W bench....
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It could of been worse. He could of been forced to watch the movie repeatedly through his 1 year sentence; thankfully the 8th amendment prevents that.
Similarly, he could have been forced to read your tortured sentence structure repeatedly.
I know what the law says, and I know that he broke the law. But consider this: there was no provable financial harm to the producers of the film. No one was hurt. No one was deprived of anything. Yet, this guy is deprived of his freedom for one year and earns a permanent criminal record. This was a classic victimless crime and I would argue that that makes it no crime at all.
Just one year? The studios lost TRILLIONS of dollars due this guy. If he hadn't released the unfinished film they would have been able to finish the film properly and would have been the greatest and most successful film of ALL TIME! Instead they had to cut their losses and release a half-assed attempt of a movie. It's all HIS fault!!!
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
I find it interesting that you would be more interested in the process than the narrative itself. I remember a time when people went to films to be lost and engrossed. A noticeable special effect was a bad thing which took you out of the film. Now, it seems people WANT to see outrageous effects which call attention to themselves. I'm guessing it's because the narrative of many films simply does not grab an audience any more, so there's really nothing to take you out of.
Recently, a Social Security employee was robbed and shot. The shooter, recently released from prison after 9 months "time-served" of a 10 year sentence for armed robbery.
So armed robbery, and you can be out in less than a year. Upload an unfinished video of a film and it's a year in prison.
The avg person's well being is meaningless to the Law. But the profits of a stealing mega-corporation, now that the Law is concerned with.
There is a point where the Sheriff is corrupt, and his badge is nothing more than a bully pulpit.
There were also laws in the books prohibiting alcohol, interracial marriages, and homosexuality. Not every illegal action is unethical, and not every unethical act is illegal.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
It is true. The two OJ trials are a well known example. It makes sense because punishing criminals is about some combination of protecting society, rehabilitation, and retribution. It isn't about trying to cure harm caused to the actual victim; whether the victim wants to try that, and whether he'll succeed is up to him, and occurs in a civil trial, and those are all about curing harms (usually via money, for lack of better alternatives).
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Indeed, if you ever get a chance look up close at a Ferrari F40, it has paint, but just barely enough to make it look Ferrari red from a distance.
The paint is thin and nearly translucent as it is opaque, so it adds the least possible weight. You can see the carbon fiber/nomex/kevlar weave right through it; it's also notoriously easy to scuff, and difficult to polish. The paint job wouldn't be close to acceptable on a factory Kia, but people paid for what is basically a street legal thoroughbred race machine, and shaving a few pounds of paint off makes it go faster, you know.
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
At least your favorite Marvel character isn't Deadpool. If that were a decent Deadpool adaptation, then his Common Sense would've started tingling and he would've gotten the hell out of that shitty excuse for a movie.
His first mistake (after, of course, uploading the movie) was in not demanding a lawyer present for all interrogations
This is a common misunderstanding.
A lawyer is necessary when you've been charged with a crime and you're going in front of a judge.
You don't need one when you're being interrogated (i.e. before you've been charged). All you need to do is BE SILENT. Do not talk to anyone. Don't say anything.
"Did you upload this movie?" silence.
"Is this your computer?" silence
"If you cooperate we'll make it easier on you." silence
If you do have a lawyer during an interrogation, all he will do is tell you to keep silent.
A movie doesn't have to be "pure" (or true) to the comics, it just has to be good. The X-Men movies directed by Bryan Singer were good. After he left, they took a nosedive.